The slip is modest, and easy to overlook, but its position immediately to the east of the tower house is telling.

Tower houses, the compact fortified residences built widely across Ireland from the fourteenth century onwards, were not purely defensive in purpose. Many were built by families whose wealth and influence depended on controlling movement, whether overland or by water. A private boat slip adjacent to such a structure would have allowed its occupants to receive goods, people, or intelligence directly by sea, bypassing roads and the scrutiny they invited. At Cill Damhnait, the stone construction of the slip points to something more considered than a casual landing point; this was infrastructure, built to last and sited deliberately.